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Re: Liquid Nitrogen

Re: Liquid Nitrogen

I used it for quenching steel coming out of the forge. Some steels (52100 and 5160 particularly) respond well to very deep quenches and then tempering cycles. it wouldn;t have anything to do with beekeeping unless you wanted a very robust hive tool The stuff is incredibly cold , below -320deg F, so it will freeze most stuff pretty dang quick.

Re: Liquid Nitrogen

Its also extreamly dangerious. Spill a litle of it on you, and you might be loosing a limb, or worse. Yes, its very usefull stuff, but, its also extreamly dangerious. No, I can't repeat that enough, its that dangerious. Err, its also used in cryo freezing things, including humans. Some studys have been done on freezing bees, and, actualy, be interesting to see if the fed has any good queens frozen and stored somewhere.

Re: Liquid Nitrogen

Originally Posted by KPeacock

I used it for quenching steel coming out of the forge. Some steels (52100 and 5160 particularly) respond well to very deep quenches and then tempering cycles. it wouldn;t have anything to do with beekeeping unless you wanted a very robust hive tool The stuff is incredibly cold , below -320deg F, so it will freeze most stuff pretty dang quick.

Re: Liquid Nitrogen

Its actually very hard to hurt yourself with it. Back when I was in school we had a teacher who would pour it over volunteers hands as a demonstration. It has such a low boiling point that it flashes into nitrogen gas on contact with something as hot as skin and insulates itself from your skin. You have to immerse your hand into a body of it for some time to actually freeze yourself.

Whats more dangerous is the substances that have been chilled with it. A metal tool for instances chilled to liquid nitrogen temps will instantly cause frostbite on contact since there is no liquid to boil into a protective gas.

Re: Liquid Nitrogen

Originally Posted by Aerindel

Its actually very hard to hurt yourself with it. Back when I was in school we had a teacher who would pour it over volunteers hands as a demonstration. It has such a low boiling point that it flashes into nitrogen gas on contact with something as hot as skin and insulates itself from your skin. You have to immerse your hand into a body of it for some time to actually freeze yourself.

Tell that to the people who I burn skin lesions off of with it. I feels like a hot coal on your skin, and the spot dies and falls out in a couple of weeks. Please don't play with it at home.

Re: Liquid Nitrogen

If your going to do a hygienic test where you kill the brood take a can of compressed air, the type used for cleaning keyboards, turn it upside down and spray the desired area for a few seconds. Don't get your hand in the spray or you'll get a freeze burn.

"Of all God's creatures, only the honeybee improves its environment and preys on no other species."--Haydon Brown

Re: Liquid Nitrogen

Sharpbees,

Have you tried this? I used dry ice and did not get a complete brood kill. Liquid nitrogen is the only thing that I have used that is cold enough to consistently get the job done. The brood itself has to chill and die to get a true test.

Re: Liquid Nitrogen

I think Aerindel was referring to the Leidenfrost effect. You can actually immerse your hand into liquid nitrogen BRIEFLY with no ill effects. Because of the low boiling point of LN there is a barrier of Nitrogen gas that protects the hand momentarily as the warmth of your hand boils the LN. I teach this concept to my physics students. Would I recommend the practice. NO! But it is a cool physics principal. Key words here guys! Briefly and momentarily. There will be a quiz on this tomorrow.

"Someday we will look back and realize someone was right...and conveniently forget we were the ones that were wrong."